Begininng
by Rose.Calling
Summary: Fang always wondered what was really a "begininng". When his mother and him have to move, she tells him its just that- a begininng. He is doubtful. Then he meets Iggy and his friends. Then he meets Max. His life will never be the same. FAX. PLEASE READ!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys :)**

**Please, please, please read and review! This is my first fanfic so I really want to know what you think! I don't know if I should continue- so tell me if I should or give me your opinion. Constuctive critisism is appreciated.**

**PLEASE REVIEW.**

**Sorry, may have been a tad forceful there.**

**Please.**

**Love from,**

**Rose :) xx**

Prologue

It's pretty hard to tell you when things really begin.

I mean, everything starts from when you're born, right? Like, you get older, go to school, go on your first date, get a job, have kids and then the whole thing repeats itself again. Like a lifecycle.

About a month ago, if someone asked me where it began, that is what I would have said. Recently though, my life has changed totally.

So now I don't know if that's really _beginning. _I mean literally, it is, but maybe things _really_ begin with a single event, or like, a series of them. Maybe they start when you meet someone, or learn something.

I really dunno.

But that's the beauty of things like that- don't you think? You never know what to expect. You don't go looking for something like that. It finds you- and when does it is freaking amazing.

It's about now that I should probably mention my name is Nick Ride, but nobody calls me that. Almost everyone, bar teachers, call me Fang, a somewhat unfortunate title I was given in elementary school, due to my 'surly and silent' manner.

Today was what you could call a pretty big day, I guess. I was starting at a new school. My mom and I had just recently moved from our old, super-mod swish home in California to a new, cramped one-and-a-half bed roomed flat in Ohio after my parents' divorce. Could we at least have moved into a cramped one-and-a-half bed roomed flat in California? No. My mother insists that she needs to "find herself" after what happened, and to do this, she needed to move away and take me with her, far from my friends, girlfriend and family in California. It pisses me off so bad.

Don't get me wrong though, I love my mother and right now, after the ugly end with Mia when I left California, she's practically the only kind woman in my life, but why she has to take me when she "finds herself" is a puzzle.

I think about all this deeply as I get dressed. All in black, per usual. My friends back in California would call me 'emo', as a joke. A not funny joke, in my opinion. When they said this, Mia would slap their arms and say "you guys!" in her husky voice and then they would all shut up, because everyone adored her. A pang of loneliness shot through my chest. I missed Mia, and I missed my friends.

"Fang!" came my mother's voice from down the hallway. I finished putting on my sneakers and trudged into the little kitchenette, where my mother stood juicing oranges, a multi-coloured scarf threaded through the braids she wore on top of her head. "Are you excited for your first day of school!" she cried with false excitement, speaking to me as if I were five. I shrugged and gave me a pleading expression as she placed a glass in front of me, like she sort of needed me to be happy, so I said

"Sure" and she beamed

"Good. That's just great." Her grin was so large, it was beginning to look painful.

She drove me to school that morning. As she focused on the unfamiliar road intently, I looked at her face. She looked a lot like, well, me. With her thick dark hair and large brown eyes, the South American heritage was plain on her face. There were wrinkles I hadn't noticed before. It struck me as unusual , because my mother was young, having me when she was just sixteen, the same age as I am now. My father and her married for my sake, as soon as they were eighteen. I would have never told my mother, but I was surprised their marriage lasted for as long as it did.

When we finally reached Fordswater High, my new school, I hesitated to get out. My mom, although we were solidly parked, was still staring at the road, her hands on the wheel. I cleared my throat and she seemed to come to her senses. "Have a nice day. Don't be angry, Fangy. Think about things: It's like a new beginning." I smiled briefly and got out of the car beginning to walk towards the droll grey building that would now be my school. I wouldn't know anyone. To avoid answering the curious 'new specimen' glances the students gathered out the front were giving me, I looked upward. The sky was so grey that is practically blended in with the school. A bolt of lightning split the clouds in half and it started to rain. I turned back to look at my mother, whose head was resting upon the steering wheel of our old red bomb.

If this is the beginning, then kill me now.


	2. Chapter 2

**I love you guys! Thank you NightHawk and Lea for your help- when I get a chance I'll go back and fix it. Unfortunatly I don't qualify for beta reader yet... but YES I would definatly like to to talk to someone about fanfiction- as being me (i.e: totally clueless with technology) it took me close to half an hour to upload the first chapter!**

**And thank you everyone for your awesome reviews! I feel under pressure to make it good now :S **

**I was in a little bit of a rush..so there may be a few grammatical errors.**

**Hopefully you enjoy :) ****Rose**

**xx**

**By the way: I am Australian and don't know _exactly_ how the American school system works. Also I don't know much about the states in America- only that California is sunny :P Mostly what I know I've picked up from books and TV, so tell me if I've made any mistakes!**

**By the way #2: Have you guys read "Looking for Alaska"? I'm reading it now and highly reccomend it :)**

CHAPTER TWO

After the long, uneventful process of setting up my timetable and locker, I finally arrived at my first class, which was history. The teacher was a very old, stooping woman who calls herself Mrs. McKaylon. At the start of the class, she calls me to the front and introduces me as "Nicholas Ride". It annoyed me. It annoyed me a lot. I wasn't going to say anything. I was going to give a _good _impression.

But before I could stop, I found myself saying "Actually, its Fang..." a phrase, sadly which, I had mistakenly uttered too many a time.

"Pardon?" she said politely, but her anger of being interrupted showed in her eyes when they flashed sharply after my reply.

"Wh-what I mean is that F-Fang is what I prefer to be called." I stuttered. Hang on, I was stuttering? Since when did I stutter? Oh, that's right, Fang... since your mother carted off to the other side of the country. Hm.

"Very well then, _Fang." _ There were titters. "I believe there is a seat over there next Jeffrey. Why don't you park yourself there, so that we can commence our lesson?" Mrs. McKaylon, who had amazingly managed to maintain her sickly tone throughout the whole sentence, turned to the board and started writing.

Head down, I trudged toward the only vacant seat in the classroom, next to the boy named Jeffrey. As I collapsed into the chair, I hear him snort in disgust.

"Jeffrey. Whatever my parents were on when they named me, I don't want to know what it was. Call me Jeff. Or wait, better- Iggy." Though I'm usually good at being impassive, this guy must have noticed the flicker of confusion on my face. "Jeffrey Ignatius Griffiths. Please to meet you, Nicholas Ride." Ahhh.

"I see."

"So, what's up with Fang, bro? Are you like...part wolf?" At this I laugh.

"No. Take a look" I gesture to my dark complexion and clothes to match.

"I see" he mimics, and I laugh for the second time in a minute, a feat I had not imagined possible.

The majority of my day I spent being dragged around by Iggy.

"Dude, I have someone for you to meet!"

"Hey, hey, wait up. This is Fang."

"How great is this guy's name! I introduce you to-drum roll please..."

These little speeches happened every time we passed someone in the hall that was in Iggy's acquaintance. However, from what I could gather, he had three main friends.

The first one I met was named Monique. Or to quote:

"Omigod. The name Fang is sooo cool- like so...mysterious. Like a vampire or something! My name is Monique, but that's sooo not a hot name- like a middle aged woman, a boring one...Everyone calls me Nudge. No reason. I think it's kind of cute- don't you?" She managed this whole word spew in only one breath. Dumbfounded, I noticed that the only reason she had stopped talking was because a slim hand with pearly white fingernails had enclosed itself over her mouth.

"Nudge, you're going to stop talking now. It's scaring Fang." If the constant flow of words shocked me, it was nothing compared the matter-of-fact way this stranger talked to Nudge- and about me. "I'm Angel. My brother Gazzy should be here in just a second." She said. Sure enough, just a moment later a tall-ish kid nearly identical to Angel came from around the corner. With their halos of fluffy curls to their delicate stances, the two looked like they might just magically produce wings from beneath their jackets and fly up to heaven. **(Gosh, I'm sorry. I couldn't help the wings pun****J)**

"Angel's scary like that. She has like, a sixth sense." Stated Iggy straightforwardly. I had almost forgotten he was there. I chuckled deeply to hide my alarm and smiled at the, well, angelic girl, only to see all four of them grinning back at me.

"It's great to meet you guys." I said, genuinely meaning it.

"It's great to meet you too, Fang" Angel replied, her saintly glow becoming brighter.

Although I'm not the deepest poetic person, if at that moment you had have asked me what I was thinking, I would have told the truth. I would have slowly turned and beamed at you, bigger than I ever had before and I would have told you that if smiles and happiness were cash, I would be the richest guy in the world.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone **

**I hope you liked my last chapter. I wasn't so sure about it, but I'm a perfectionist sometimes- that's probably why I can be so slow to update!**

**Anyway, this chapter is quite uneventful, but I felt that I had to add something in between Fang's first day and his second. Don't worry though, I'm trying to add two chapters today **

**I love you all,**

**Rose **

**Xx**

After school when I let myself in, I found that no one was home, my mother indubitably at work. I threw my bag down onto the couch and raided the cupboard to see if there was anything to eat.

From the corner of my eye I noticed the recently rigged up answering machine was flashing. A message. Vacantly, I went and pressed the play button only to hear my father's rough voice project from the machine, begging me to call him. I guess that it was only to be expected.

I didn't know if I would though, I mean, I still hadn't forgiven him for the whole break-up thing. Nor had I let my mother off the hook, but at least my father had a home full of comforts and familiar people and warm, California weather. My mother was stuck in this tiny flat with me being the only person she knew. But that had been her decision, I remembered angrily. Refusing to feel sympathy for either side I yanked out the phone cord, then shoved the issue to the back of my mind.

As a distraction, I turned on the TV, mulling over today's events in my mind. School-wise, things were all right. I mean, I met a really nice group of people and all the teachers, even Mrs. McKaylon, were okay. I learnt stuff and I kind of saw a sort of future in Ohio- something that I hadn't expected out of any place but California. I think it had something to do with Iggy and his friends.

Despite how satisfied I was, I thought that the day had lacked something. Something that I couldn't identify. It lacked...foundation? No, that came out wrong. It was like I had had something all built up and nearly finished and then someone had kicked it down and I had to spend ages looking for all the pieces. Just when I thought I was onto them all, I found that some were missing.

I didn't know what this all had to do with beginning. Maybe foundations did have something to do with it. Maybe today the foundations were nearly finished and my mother was right- it would be a beginning.

I was still not convinced.

Just as I was about to think up a counter-argument for this thought, I was interrupted by the sound of a key in the door. A second later, my mother appeared, flustered and bringing in the scent of Thai cookery. Her face was red and beaming and she was carrying multiple bags of shopping, as well as some take away containers.

"Hi Darling! You must be starving. I bought food." She gestured to the containers and I nodded, my anger from before not yet gone. "Come now, Fang. You know I'm dying to hear about your day! How was school?"

"Meh." I replied, not really meaning it. Truthfully, I just wanted to make her doubtful.

"Did you make any new friends?" she persisted. I shrugged, feeling disloyal now. "Were the teachers nice?" I gave no reply at all. Her face fell slightly and then lightened back up. "Well, there's Thai for dinner- get some cutlery would you darling?" Impassively I walked into the kitchenette to dig out the knives and forks.

When I ambled coolly back into the lounge/dining room I found my mother with her head in her hands massaging her temples and shaking slightly, as if she were crying. Shocked, I walked quickly back into the kitchenette and made a big deal of rustling through the cutlery draw. It was the best I could do because an evil bit of me _wanted _her to feel remorse for the move and the split up. I search through the draw for as long as I thought would be believable, before going back into the lounge/dining room, knives and forks at hand.

Her eyes were still red but the grin was back and the way she said "Thanks honey" was friendly and warm.

Dinner was unusually quiet that night. My mother was chewing her food slowly and by the time I was finished she wasn't even half done. When I announced that I was off to bed the smile was still there, travelling up her face, through the dimples on her cheeks, around the crinkles near her eyes. But not reaching them.

Her eyes stayed as cold and dead as ice and as soon as I turned I felt her expression go flat. As I was going down the hallway, I heard a weak, tired "Goodnight." And I couldn't help feeling a little bad.


	4. Chapter 4

It was still dark when I woke up. I rolled over and checked my phone for the time. 2:42 am. Crap. As I sit up, I hear loud music and yelling coming from somewhere else in the apartment block. Groggily, I get up and put on my jacket to go outside and find the noise and tell whoever is making it to shut up for god's sake. I needed my sleep.

I grab my keys from the table and creep out the front door to look for the cause of the racket. It gets louder as I go outside and I see that it's coming from a flat two spaces down. The door is open. Apprehensively, I tip-toe toward it and knock lightly on the door frame. I don't think anyone hears because at that moment someone-a girl I think- squeals loudly and begins to laugh. I knock again, louder, so that I could be heard over the hysterical giggling and this time a girl with shoulder length brown hair and dark skin answers.

"Yes?" she says. She sounds exhausted. I look over her shoulder to see a girl with fiery red hair running around being chased by a chestnut haired boy, who is laughing. The girl screeches and I know instantly who has been making the noise. "Can I help you?" The brunette repeats.

"Oh um...Hi. My name's Fang. I'm just from a couple of doors down and I'm sort of uh-"

"Sort of tired!" Another girl comes up from behind the brunette. "Tell me about it. Those two have been at it all night and we can't get them to can it, can we El?" she says this last part to the girl who is standing next to her, who rolls her eyes.

"That's putting it lightly." She says and goes back off into the apartment, which is quite a bit nicer than ours. The other girl was still standing there, nearly as tall as me. She flipped her long golden-brown hair impatiently over her shoulder.

"So you came 'round here to tell _us _to can it?" Her voice is sort of husky, a bit like Mia's. Her shapely eyebrows rose over her milky chocolate eyes and it was then that I realised that she was extremely pretty. In awe, like the idiot I am, I forgot to answer her question. "Anybody home?" she asked.

"Oh. Um, right. Well yeah, I guess that was it." I replied.

"Jerks. They come over here and..." She seems to be uttering this to herself. Then she says louder "I'm sorry... Honestly I'm trying my best to get those two to stop it. Trust me, I _desperately _want sleep. I'm such a grouch when I'm under slept. Hopefully those two pass out of fatigue or drunkenness soon. I haven't had one single wink of sleep. Those two think that they can just..." she trailed off again and smiled at me. Her teeth were white and her lips were very full even as they curved up into a slightly vague grin.

"Hah. Yeah, I'm sorry to have caused any, uhm, inconvenience. I'm just like you."

"Huh?"

"A grouch when I get no sleep." This time she threw her head back and laughed. I chuckled with her until she stopped.

"Yeah... Well, I hope that you can drift off sooner or later. I'll try and get them to turn off the music..."

"Thanks."

"No worries." She smiled, then shut the door and I could hear her voice shouting for the two people who were running to "Shut the hell up!" as I walked back to my flat. I laughed again.

As I wondered down the hallway I thought how I didn't even notice how I was wearing my pyjamas and old jacket in front of this amazing girl and how it didn't cross my mind how big the dark circles underneath my eyes must be.

Although as the night wore on, the music and screaming died down, I still couldn't sleep a wink.

**Soooo...? What did you think! Tell me! Review!**

**Please **


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry guys.**

**The characters in chapter four may have seemed a bit confusing. I was planning (and still am) to give their names and stuff in this chapter, but of course, you guys are no mind readers! (Or do we have another Angel on our hands...? *shudder*)**

**Anyway, I hope everything becomes clear in this chapter.**

**Love,**

**Roseyy**

**xx**

I was dead on my feet the next morning. I walked through the school corridors in a slumberous daze and Iggy had had to grab my arm and spin me around at times, because I was walking in the complete wrong direction.

"Dude what is _up _with you today?" he asked for what I presumed was not the first time.

"Huh? Oh, nothing...just under slept..."

"_Under slept? _I think that that's an _understatement_."

"Maybe. I don't know." I didn't know anything today, really.

"You don't know anything today." He said, repeating my thoughts. I didn't know anything today except that I _wanted _to know who the girl was that lived two doors down. In my mind, I started going through our conversation again...

"Hi Fang!" said an abnormally loud voice. Nudge, obviously. "We have the next class together, did you know! Gosh don't you look tired! How many hours of sleep did you get? I read once that teenagers needed more sleep than babies! Iggy, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to take charge over this zombie, because we are up on the next level, for science."

This bombardment was all a little too much for my sluggish brain to comprehend and before I knew what was happening, she was dragging me up the stairs and down a corridor.

She then let go of me then and ran and screamed, hugging several other girls who were standing nearby. Obviously, she had assumed I would follow her, because she came back and hauled me toward the group of people she was standing with "Come on Fang! Come and meet my friends!" she squealed.

"This is Fang." She said "Doesn't he have an awesome name? Isn't he adorable?" Nudge spoke about me as if I was an object for sale.

"Hey." I said wearily in greeting.

"Hey" They all replied uninterestedly, returning to their previous conversation, until they all were interrupted by loud, husky voice.

"Oh my GOSH. It's you!" Typically, the gorgeous girl from last night was the one staring up at me almost accusingly.

"Yeah...It's you!" I replied in a mock reproachful tone, as if I had _no _idea who this girl was. She laughed.

"You're the... the guy! El, it's that guy!" she turns to the only non-confused face in the circle, which I recognised. It was the girl who had first come to the door, with tanned skin and brown hair, who nodded as if to say: "and..?"

"So did you get back to sleep?" the pretty girl asks, oblivious to the quizzical glances that the rest of them are giving us.

"Uh, truthfully, no. I'm just one of those people I guess, once I wake up, I never get back to sleep..." I avoided telling her the real reason for my lack of slumber.

"Hah. Me too. Oh! I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself... I'm Max!" Whoa, strange name. I liked it though. "This is my little sister Ella," she gestured to the brunette from last night. "And my friends Lissa, Sam, J.J and Dylan. You might remember these two from last night..." she pointed to the red head and the boy who was chasing her. Lissa and Sam. "...but I doubt they remember you!"

All of them nodded politely in greeting and Nudge, who I had surprisingly forgotten was there, piped up, saying "This is _so _weird." The rest of us nodded a little awkwardly, except Max, who was grinning hugely.

"Tis weird, Nudgey." She said. "Tis very weird..." She then picked up her books and wandered into the classroom, humming quietly to herself all the way.

**Or at least I hope the whole situation will become clear in the next two chapters, which I shall publish soon. R + R pleaseeee. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Hellooo Everyone!**

**I'M SORRY I TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE! I was on holidays for a while **

**To respond to your review ..Now (gosh that's a long name **** ) I hope that everything will become clear in this chapter, if not, I hope it does throughout the story!**

**And thank you all for the nice things you said **

**Has anyone heard of Cœur de pirate? She is my obsession right now 3**

**Love from Roseyy**

**Xx**

**P.S I wasn't too sure about this chapter, I thought that it went on a little. I'm not sure- could please tell me your thoughts?**

I didn't sit next to Max in class, nor did I get a chance to talk to her again. No, for the rest of the lesson I was being showered with questions from Nudge, who would not let it rest.

"Omigod Fang, spill! Why didn't you tell me you knew Max! For goodness sakes, this is Maxine Martinez we're talking about. Maxine Martinez! She is like totally one of the most popular girls in this school. We've been friends since middle school, you know!"

"I didn't actually know it was Max, Nudge. I didn't even know that the girl I met _briefly _last night went to this school..."

"Did you think she was hot? No shame in it, every guy in this school does, I reckon!"

"Uhm, Nudge, I was half asleep at the time and not in any fit state to make that sort of judgement." Yes, Nudge, I thought that she was very hot. I still do, in fact, she looks even better in the light...

The rest of the lesson continued as such until the stooping teacher wheezed at us to stop whispering. As I stared across the room to the middle row where Max sat, my only comfort was that for the whole lesson, there was a slight lingering smile on her face.

"Maxine Martinez, Ella Martinez, Sam Hitchman, Lissa Fry, Jennifer-Joy Jenkins and Dylan Wright." Iggy reeled off when I asked him after school. "They are _the group, _if you get what I mean. There are a few more guys who hang out with them too, but yeah, those are the people you met."

"So...the deal is that they're like the jocks and cheerleaders, sort of?" I queried.

"Well, Ella, Lissa and J.J are all on the squad. Max isn't for some reason or another, but no one really cares. All of the guys play football." He pauses suddenly. "Why do you ask? My guess is that you'd already figured all that out."

"No reason, I'm just interested." He raised one eyebrow at me and continued on.

"Well then you must have figured out that Ella and Max are sisters. Max is about a year older than Ella, whose accelerated- but not many people know that. I only know via Nudge, who was friends with her and Max in middle school... As for the others, ask Nudge, she's the one whose friends with all of them. All I know is that Lissa is a prize flirt, J.J's pretty quiet but fantastic at cheerleading and Sam and Dylan are hot for Max. Mind you, Sam's hot for anyone."

_Sam and Dylan are hot for Max. _As soon as the words left Iggy's lips, they were the only thing that registered. I knew then I had no chance. _Sam and Dylan are hot for Max. Hot for Max. Are you hot for Max, Fang? Hm? Fang?_ _Fang!_

"Fang! Did you hear what I just said!" Iggy was yelling.

"Uh, yeah... Sam, Dylan and uh..." I trailed off.

"I asked if you wanted to come to a party I was having. This Friday night. It's my birthday. What say you, man?"

"Sure. Friday's good."

"Cool. You were real out of it for a sec there. If you hadn't mentioned the other day about how cut up you were about your whole ex-girlfriend California situation, I would have thought that you liked her, dude! Hah. As if, you've only known the chick properly for an hour..."

_I would have thought that you liked her. Sam and Dylan are hot for Max. I would have thought that you... are hot for Max, Fang. _No. That's not true. She's really pretty and that's all. I think that she's pretty. Iggy's right, I have technically only known her for an hour.

"Are you still with us Fang? You're brains been on holiday all day. Maybe you really _do _like Maxine Martinez..." Iggy gave me a light punch on the arm and slung his back properly over his shoulder. He smiled impishly then turned to leave and I laughed, too late, of course.

"Hah. Max Martinez, yeah...as if!" I don't know whether heard it, or if he did whether he believed it, but as I watched him stride down the hallway toward the exit, I knew that all six words I had just said to him were untrue.

**Soooo? What did you think? Tell me please!**


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